News, Innovations, Events and other Shenanigans from Sony Electronics USA

Press Release

Long GOP as choice of high-efficiency codec and “XAVC S” focused for consumer use

LAS VEGAS, NAB Booth C11001, April 7, 2013 – With the successful sale of new CineAlta™ 4K cameras, expected to reach more than 2,000 units shipment worldwide by the end of April 2013, the XAVC format has been widely adopted in the marketplace. The format holds various advantages for high quality image reproduction including 4K pixel resolution, 10 bit color depth, wide color space (S-Gamut) and refined gamma (S-log).

Sony is today announcing Long GOP (4K 4:2:0 and HD 4:2:2) as choice of high-efficiency codec to serve more widely the requirements of the content production market. In addition, to serve the consumer market, “XAVC S” employing MP4 wrapping format is also introduced as its expansion of XAVC. This expansion will encourage growth of 4K content in the consumer market.

“XAVC S” profile

– Resolution: 4K (3840 x 2160), HD, and Proxy

– Compression: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264

– Wrapping format: MP4

– Audio: Linear PCM and AAC

Note: Each manufacturer will decide which profile and operating point of XAVC they will implement in their products.

Sony hereby assures XAVC format to be a video recording format that covers both of professional and consumer market.

XAVC is introduced as an open format, to serve as a driver to promote and establish 4K content production infrastructure. A license program is proposed not only for editing software manufacturers but also for hardware manufacturers. Currently, over 60 manufacturers have filed a request to become a licensee, and 31 manufacturers’ products plan on their support for Sony XAVC format and workflow.